Encompassing much of the East Village, Lower East Side, and Tompkins Square, Kleindeutschland was populated by and catered to German Immigrants. Philanthropists like Oswald Ottendorfer, who published New York's largest German-language newspaper Staats-Zeitung, founded the Ottendorfer free library that provided german language reading material to the neighborhood. Construction started in 1883 and it opened in 1884, it still survives today as part of the NYPL system.

Simultaneously to the neighboring library, Ottendorfer funded the German Dispensary, a hospital geared explicitly towards tending to the medical needs of the recently arrived immigrants. Its name would be later changed to the Stuyvesant Polyclinic due to anti-German sentiment during the First World War.

German clubs like the German American Shooting Society served as places where the community would meet, organize, and socialize. Despite the bellicose name, weapons, and imagery, the slogan emblazoned on the society's doors "Einigkeit Macht Stark" (Unity is strength) gave a truer notion for its purpose. The clubhouse had its own saloon and ballroom and would rent extra space to German language businesses.

Built in 1894, Scheffel Hall is an example of the many restaurants that sprung up to serve immigrants with food that they would have had in the old world. Modeled after a building in Heidelburg Castle, the hall's style was described as "German-American eclectic Renaissance Revival" and bore the name of a german novelist. It also served as a beer hall, providing thirsty germans with ales from one of the many german breweries in the city.

Banks like the Germania Bank were founded by residents of Kleindeutschland and anchored in the neighborhood. As more Germans arrived, the bank prospered through servicing the new immigrants and helping them establish themselves in America. Providing loans and remittances, the Germania Bank being able to cater to German language speakers was essential to its business.

Tragically, it was the neighborhood's tight-knit bonds that would cause its doom. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Luke was established in 1857 to cater to Kleindeutschland's Germans and quickly became the premier church of the area. Not only was the vast majority of St. Luke's congregation German, but with almost all of the neighborhood's prominent Christians practicing there, it served the cream of Kleindeutschland's society.

Tragedy would strike in the form of the General Slocum Disaster. Chartered for the 17th annual picnic for St. Luke's, the steamboat caught fire and sank. 1,021 passengers would die, killing 1% of Kleindeutschland's population and much of its most established figures. Following the disaster, the neighborhood shattered and never recovered. Little Germany's community dispersed across the city.